Buren advises Planon

Buren advises Planon, a planning software company, on all legal aspects for obtaining a EUR 12 million facility from EIB under InnovFin.
Planon is the first Dutch company using an InnovFin finance.

A relatively unknown means of financing for small and medium-sized (Midcap) companies is the so-called "InnovFin - EU Finance for Innovators" programme (InnovFin) of the European Investment Bank (EIB). By 2020, InnovFin is expected to make over EUR 24 billion of debt and equity financing available to innovative companies to support EUR 48 billion of final R&I investments. InnovFin is part of Horizon 2020, a project directed by the European Union, with the goal to have the European Union be the world's most competing, sustainable and innovative knowledge economy.

Financing under InnovFin can be a useful addition to the financing possibilities for innovative companies to the existing possibilities such as commercial banks or private parties.

Typically EIB provides up to 50% of project or investment cost, the remainder of the financing being provided by other banks and financial institutions or project promoters' own funds. InnovFin, as EIB carries out a thorough financial due diligence on each company it intends to provide financing to, may function as incentive for other (commercial) parties to extend the additional financing.

Different conditions apply to an InnovFin finance compared to a regular finance. In any case, the applicant company should submit a complete and feasible business plan. Furthermore, the project that will be subject of the finance shall align with national and European interests and should bear an added economic value. Once these conditions have been met, the further conditions to the facility will be relatively flexible. EIB, its shareholders comprising of the 28 European Union member states, enjoys a strong creditworthiness in the market and is therefore in the position to attract funds under favorable conditions, which conditions will be passed-on by EIB to its clients.